Expression Widgets for Learning Environments

0.1.1
by Marcio Galli
Taboca Labs and Friends

This document proposes ideas that enhances the current Web browsing experience
and allows users to participate collaboratively to build open learning resources. In the
scope of this document, the term learning session relates to a synchronous learning
event that has a team of participants involved for a period of time. Examples of
learning sessions can be a lecture, student tests, discussions, and more. The term
expression widgets refers to browser enhancement tools that allows participants to
create data content that can be shared and re-purposed into online documents that
supports the said learning session.

Motivation

This section offers a brief overview about a few areas that are considered the main
motivation points in this proposal:

Web Quests

The Web Quest [1] model proposes that the web itself can be used as a
resource of experiences that supports inquiry-oriented tasks. This model
suggests the use of real-life online data as a means to enhance engagement and
discussions among students. The wide aspect of the web has the value of the
unexpected and ever changing real-life data but it also presents potential
challenges as a participant could loose its focus. To help with this challenge, this
model proposes that guidelines can exist as part of a web quest. These can vary
from using tools, such as a video conference applications, or guideline requests
such as a list of pre-determined Web links to follow. These parameters are used
to support participants to achieve the goals associated with the tasks. In a
similar analysis, the Mozilla Design Challenge project can be considered an
example of quests that uses certain parameters to motivate developers to get
involved.

Open Educational Content

The Open Textbook project [2] identifies barriers at educational institutions and
the need to raise awareness and knowledge about open educational resources.
The project suggests that the strong preference of publisher's textbooks is
associated with assumptions that instructors prefers to adopt these materials.
The existing culture and dependencies with traditional publishing are key
challenges for open education. In this scenario, this project proposes a more
natural way in which users can participate and express their input as part of
ongoing leaning events. The idea is to get participants more involved in the
process of content creation without a strict authoring structure that can be
confused or compared with traditional textbooks - such as processes that
requires heavy writing. Instead, it is proposed that the content creation can be
more like a free form browsing experience and feels like the action of
referencing and re-purposing Web content. The more users are involved in
content creation, more likely they are to accept the general use of open
educational resources in future learning conditions.
 Social-aware Web 2.0

At educational institutions, the general use of e-learning systems may raise

security questions related to information security governance [3]. Governance
aspects may demand complex maintenance solutions to keep e-leaning
ecosystems up to date. Social Web 2.0 apps can fill certain gaps when learning
systems are not as up-to-date and when groups of individuals wants to take
advantage of emerging social systems in team-driven projects.

As an example, a study about an online tutoring using Second Life [4], shows
that a community of learners used wiki systems as a resource to support their
communication during the course. This model suggests cases where teams can
decide to use external systems that can affect the interaction dynamics beyond
the initial definitions given by a learning session or framework, specifically if the
initially defined learning framework defines complex rules.

This aspect motivated the proposition to use wiki as the remote repositories
where learning resources are created. The ideis is to keep the aspect where
users can build together and create rich learning resources in a team-based
approach - the server system should not add too many rules and at the same
time should allow social conventions.

Expression Widgets with JetPacks

In the scope of this project, a learning session is a synchronous event such as a

lecture of 1-2 hours given by a tutor. While some of the ideas can be used for
asynchronous sessions, such as an assignment task that lasts one week, the
synchronous scenario seems to be a good candidate for an implementation that could
go along with a future evaluation test program in real classes. The basic scenario is a
traditional lecture with a number of learners following notes from a tutor. It is
assumed that the participants are also using laptops or other types of devices so they
can directly use a Firefox browser that has a JetPack infra-structure pre-installed.

An expression widget is defined as a JetPack-based application that lets participants to

use Web content and applications as resources to create and repurpose Web data as
their expression notes, and share into a repository that represents the leaning
session. As mentioned earlier, the remote repository should not enforce too many
rules. Similarly to the way that a wiki page works, the repository should support
participants to create social conventions. In some cases the wiki can start empty while
in other scenarios the learners may access a repository that has prior information.

The infra-structure provided by Jetpack supports the direction of a free form and easy
to use browsing/editing experience that allows manipulation over Web-based content.
As an example, a student could write in a hand book and easily put arrows to connect
objects of information previously written. The expression widgets could function in a
similar way and support participants to create Web content, or to manipulate of
elements from existing Web sites or applications, or elements previously shared in the
wiki repository. The following table enumerates the main capacities for expression
widgets:

Capacity Description Examples, Comments

 Widget code may offer
interface elements that
allow participants to re-
purpose existing web
content from pages. In
this case, re-purposing
* possible to get
web content means that
anything from the Web;
user can identify section
elements that are part of
* examples are: take
pages, and the system
screenshot, take text
Web Content - Re- should create a set of
from pages, take
purpose meta-data that refers to
numbers from pages,
this section elements,
takes mathematical
and also maintains
expression from pages,
references and various
takes SVG elements from
possible views associated
pages, and more;
with the content focus
section - original page
URL, text information if
any, screenshot for the
content area, associated
tags, and more.

* local app can have

good performance;

* remote input, over the

wiki, can also carry
reference to the JP-
Widgets to allow
based script; Maybe one
participants to simple
approach is to keep
Web Content - Create create new content not
some sort of URI
exactly tied to existing
resolution scheme where
pages on the web.
a JetPack script can be
uniquely identified on the
web from any page;

* as an example, picture
a canvas-based drawing;

General idea is to have Example in wiki learning

participant created session document:
content to be shared in a
way that is friendly with == User A Expressions
the general posting rules ==
Conventions - Share of a wiki repositories and
yet offers a dynamic * [01:00] {text: "hello
interaction so users can "}
build associations
between their == User B Expression
expressions; ==
 As an example,
participant A expression
statement is posted to
the common wiki. A post
from participant B should
not create conflict with
user A. This conflict
resolution should be part
of the posting widget
itself. At this point it is
suggested the following * [01:01] {text: "...
model for posts: world "}

* All posts from user X

under user X section
* Each post with an
unique ID or timestap;
The timestamp is the
very first way that create
time-based relationship
between user expression
statements;

Expression widgets can

also render content from Example of user A
the wiki in a richer refereing to user B
format so its possible to contnt:
see the data in the
widget-friendly way - == User A ==
let's say if you have a
svg:circle you should be * [time=00:00]
able to see a real graphic {text:"hello"}
of a circle defined in
SVG; == User B ==

The more complex the * [time=00:10]

widgets are, it may get
Conventions - Interaction
to a point tha the text is
not readable by a
human. This is a tricky
point it needs to be
discussed;
Participants should be
able to refer and possibly
reuse and modify the
expression statements
from others in a way that
is friendly to participants
evolving conventions and
boost constructivism.
@A[time=00:00]
{text:"hello"}
{text_replace:s/hello/
hello_world}
This example uses a
regular expression and
states that user B
refered user A and made
a change. The
statament-based
reference model would
allow social expressions
to be created.
Ideas to the User Interface Experience

The following illustration shows a sidebar on the left with some of the available
widgets available at the bottom left corner of the participant's browser experience.
Examples are Screenshot, Canvas Drawing, Text, MathML, etc. The upper left area has
other note books ( other learning session repositories .) The content on the right is
the widget-powered view of the content that can be transferred to the repository. This
can be considered a visualization mode / editing switch mode. When in creation mode,
the widget can let users to add over the very same page or capture and re-purpose
content from other tabs over to this session page.

The following illustration shows the basic wiki view page that represents the learning
annotation space for a given event ( a lecture for example ) that happened for a
period of time. Each section of the wiki page holds the collection of statements
provided by a participant. Note the presence of timestamp attributes at the beginning
of each statement. This page has three different sections (in yellow, blue, and green)
representing input from three individuals.

Other visualizations would also be possible and could mix the wiki view with the
widgets-rendered view. Depending on the mode of operation, widgets could also be
used to render the rich view over the wiki page as in creating additional realities of
visualization. There is also opportunities for special display panels that could be used
to give some general views to the whole class in case of a real live session.

How JetPack supports this implementation

This section enumerates some of aspects in the Jetpack infra-structure and how it
may related to benefits in the learning space based on the proposal ideas.

Infra-structure
Description Learning Aspects
Aspects
 Higher security means
that participating users
can use the widgets in a
Unlike the traditional natural way that
extensions support in requires less technical
Firefox, the JetPack expertise or
infra-structure offers a understanding the
sandbox model where widget code.
certain types of
extensions, called The user can quickly
Security
JetPacks, can run with review the list of
improved security. installed expression
widgets, disable or easy
A survey with Firefox import new widgets to
extension study [5] their session. Once a
shows that a number of user knows about the
the popular Firefox list of trusted
extension behaviors are expression widgets, he/
related to features that she should be able to
could be exposed simply use it in a
without a need to natural way that is
expose the full Gecko similar to an common
API; browsing experience.

The JetPack Security This aspect may also be

Model [6] is currently an opportunity to
under development and enable university
defines limitations in environments to accept
terms of the resources the wider use of
that a JetPack-based browser widgets as part
script can access from of their learning and
the browser XPCOM authoring systems. The
libraries. security aspects in a
JetPack powered
experience can lead to
an opportunity for wider
acceptance by
educational institutions
as they may have
information security
criteria as part of their
governance structure.

Seamless Installation JetPacks can be If expression widgets

installed without a need can be smoothly
to restart. With installed, there is a
traditional Firefox greater chance for the
extensions, the need for aggregated of these
a browser application tools at the same time.
restart is required. There is an opportunity
While Firefox offers for association between
 session restore
collection of Jetpacks
features, the act of
and a given learning
restart is time
session.
consuming and lead the
user to loose its focus.
As an example, a
In the case of Firefox,
student part of a math
most of the extensions
class maybe using
do not talk with each
widgets such as page
other and they in
screenshot capture, text
general interact on Web
capture, MathML, and
pages or the user's
SVG generators.
profile browser session.

The JetPack infra-

structure allows Web
developers to deploy
Web-based JavaScript The browser and the
that can access and Web becomes the
Access to Browser manage data from the content
Session user's current session. generator that allows a
variety of data to be re-
A JetPack script has purposed, created, and
access to a variety of shared under a given
resources proposed as learning session.
JEPs and allow
developers to come up
with great ideas to
enhance the default
browser experience.
Examples of items that
a JetPack script can
access are: Information
about Tabs, content
from pages, perform
XHR operations, and
others.

Participants can post to

Posts and reads using collaborative
feeds model and XHR repositories that they
transport - compliance understand what is it
with to Web 2.0 about. The use of wiki
Collaboration and
negotiation model as collaborative
Publishing
application - for remote resource offers less
or local data-sources; barriers to other
participating users,
tools, and
transformation systems.
Example Ideas

• Professor requests a circle; Professor talks about a species of a fish; One

student grabs a image of the fish from Google Images, other quotes part of
the definition available in the wikipedia document. Other student finds an SVG
of a fish that is not really the real fish, other student draws a fish. While the
students could be using skills associated with quests on the Web, there could
be chances where the use of these speific skills and communication languages
could inspire students to pay attention or discuss associated areas and other
views from other participants.

• It is important to evaluate how to create more complex scenarios where

students are can create things together and possibly the expression evaluation
is also associated when the aggregated view is rendered. Let's say a
mathematical expression and stack building or condition statements. The
insertion statements are more complex and each item refers/quotes item from
other participants, and adds to it. Example: @felipegomes [t=01]
{math:x=10 } ... @marcio [t=02] @felipegomes[t=01] {{math:x=10}
math:x+=10 }

Final Words

The general goal of this work is to identify opportunities in the online learning space
and propose scenarios to support participants to annotate, organize, and collaborate
about topics occurring in events. This work also explores emerging opportunities for
collaborative and learning frameworks that may be more friendly, or even
disconnected, from specific governance rules that are in place as part of learning
systems at educational institutions.

In terms of future works, a system implementation is suggested with focus on a set of

widgets that can support certain types of lectures in the technical and engineering
field. The technology field seems to be a good candidate for a pilot evaluation
program at a real institution. A pilot evaluation program is strongly recommended and
also a criteria for tests and analysis. Additional documentation should be provided in
case the evaluation program and widgets implementation is required. Thanks to Felipe
Gomes for the great contributions and the many learning and brainstorming sessions
we had. Also thanks to Mark Surman and Frank Hecker input with open education
materials.

References

[1] Dodge, B., (1997). Some Thoughts About WebQuests. From WebQuest.org
website: http://webquest.sdsu.edu/about_webquests.html

[2] Baker, J., Thierstein, J., Fletcher, K., Kaur, M., & Emmons, J. (2009, November).
Open Textbook Proof-of-Concept via Connexions. From International Review of
Research in Open and Distance Learning website: http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/
irrodl/article/view/633

[3] Chang, V., Uden, L. (2009). Governance for E-learning Ecosystem. School of
Information Systems, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia. Faculty of
Computing, Engineering and Technology, Staffordshire University, Stafford, United
Kingdom

[4] Fedeli, L., (2009, August). Avatar-assisted learning: Second Life and the new
challenges of online tutoring. University of Macerata, Macerata, Italy. VIWO 2009
WORKSHOP (ICWL 2009)

[5] Felt, A., (2009, October). A Survey of Firefox Extension API Use. Technical Report
No. UCB/EECS-2009-139, website: http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/
2009/EECS-2009-139.html

[6] JetPack Security Model. From Mozilla wiki website:https://wiki.mozilla.org/Labs/

Jetpack/JEP/29